Comments on: Racial tolerance: is Canada a better option than Australia?

By: Heathdon McGregor

Heathdon McGregor — Wed, 02 Sep 2009 00:14:32 +0000

Dear Greg

I pose the same questions to you that I have asked any Journalist trying to whip up this attacks on indian students beat up. Where is the proof?

Mr Rees was talking about allegations that were not backed upped by evidence. Unlike the victorian politicians who only saw headlines he did a little homework before dog whistling. Just because you state”its a fact” doesn’t mean it is. I saw some of that program on sbs and when asked by Ms Brockie if the students were more concerned with violence or their permanent visas the silence was deafening. Then one student commented that the schools cannot just lie to them. This is about permanent residence.

Your anecdotal evidence is just that. I was in a western suburbs high school in the eighties when an asian student punched another student in class. These were the days when the asian kids sat on one side and everybody else on the other. The teacher asked why we didn’t aide the person who was assaulted. The general and adament consensus was that if you are going to be racist then wear the consequences. Does this mean everybody is the same? no but neither are all people racists

Edward, I think you will find a spread of where people are from who are involved in Melbournes violence that has apparently occurred in line with the Herald Suns campaign. So please keep your western suburbs waste of space lines where they belong.

Greg perhaps for your next article you could expand on your chapter and verse of racism. I’m sure it will make imaginative reading.

Finally i ask again where is the proof?Even the age has realised it was whipping a dead horse.Why is crikey continuing to beat it up?

The problem might possibly be solved with an international student ombudsman. That is the real problem of visa eligibility and dishonest schools promising better conditions than reality. Not this imagined problem where it seems anytime a muckraker goes looking for a headline they find anecdotal evidence.

By: Greg Barns

Greg Barns — Tue, 01 Sep 2009 23:29:59 +0000

Actually Edward I spend a good deal of my time - around 50 percent - living in Melbourne and I know Hawthorn very well. I have witnessed racism in Hawthorn and am more than happy to give you chapter and verse.

By: Rena Zurawel

Rena Zurawel — Tue, 01 Sep 2009 10:04:12 +0000

I think we are all ‘tribal’ and tribal tensions are very easy to be exploited by some misguided politics.
However, what happens to foreign students is one of the biggest scandals in Australian entire history. It has nothing to do with racism, though. It is an absolute greed for money and the system introduced by the previous government is the core of the problem, and not the hoi polloi.
Due to my work I came across incredible fraudelent use of students visas.
Just one of many:
A young guy from Punjab came to study in Australia. His family sold a block of land to pay for the student visa, the first term of his study, the services of an agent in India, travel ticket etc.. The 20 year old boy comes to Australia and gets informed that his visa is invalid because the course does not exist. He is advised to go back. No one even suggests to give him the money back. He sits and cries. Finally, he is told that he can get another course although he had never intended to study the subject. He starts studying and gets even very good marks and 96% attendance. One day he comes to the school along with other students to find out that the school is closed down. The immigration people arrive at the scene and interrogate all the students separately. Then, the foreign students are offered a course at the uni. Our Punjabi guy is not interested in the uni course as he was never entitled (did not have matriculation) to enter a uni.
He suffers badly, because the uni course is too hard for him and he complains to the authorities. He is referred to a … psychiatrist. (sic) He neraly finishes his course, one term to go, when he gets arrested by the Department of Immigration on mistaken identity. He presents his passport, drivers’ license, bank account - nothing convinced the authorities that he is not a taxi driver from Punjab staying illegally in Australia. The guy is sent to the detention centre. He misses on his course so he is not entitled to finish off his studies. By law, he cannot extend his visa to complete the course, because od ‘poor attendance’. He loses all his money and cannot defend himself. NO ONE would listen. But he incurred incredible debt to the Commonwealth for the 5 star hotels in Baxter Centre and Villawood Detention Centres. His story was presented to the Minister of Immigration who decided ‘not to intervene’ in this case.
And this is only one of many stories. And I am not sure whether there was any racism involved. Cornelia Rau was an Australian.

By: Edward Thompson

Edward Thompson — Tue, 01 Sep 2009 07:16:35 +0000

If you would like to show me some crime data displaying a statistically significant skew targeting Indian Students, I’d be very interested.

By: fleury

fleury — Tue, 01 Sep 2009 06:56:45 +0000

Edward re: “Don’t try and extrapolate the actions of some waste of space shitheads from the western suburbs who have nothing better to do than harass people in Train stations”.

And how can you deny that their actions, as concentrated as they are on Indian students (vs others) are not racist? Happy-ville in Hawthorn doesn’t devoid the fact that other actions against Indians could certainly be seen as racist.

Not that racism is limited to this subset of “waste of space shitheads”, of course. Rudd added nicely to the air of racism / cultural arrogance with his departing “Adios” sling to Sol.

By: Edward Thompson

Edward Thompson — Tue, 01 Sep 2009 06:24:12 +0000

Greg, You choose to live in the whitest place on earth (Tasmania). Please cite your ‘evidence’ that the problem is worse than we realise.

There are plenty of us living and working in cities and suburbs with loads of Indian students who aren’t having any problems at all.

Don’t try and extrapolate the actions of some waste of space shitheads from the western suburbs who have nothing better to do than harass people in Train stations.

We don’t need ridiculous ‘hate-crime’ legislation to further reinforce our ethnic differences under the law. If it is a crime for one, it’s a crime for all.

So, while you sit in Hobart and discuss how terrible racism is in Australia with all the other concerned white folk, I’ll be chatting about the cricket to my Indian mates in Hawthorn (Indian Students = good cheap curry in your suburb, everyone wins)

By: jungarrayi

jungarrayi — Tue, 01 Sep 2009 05:05:46 +0000

When the Special Rapporteur of the UN (Professor James Anaya) recently made his preliminary Statement on his 11 day fact finding visit to Australia, the “what racist? us?” reaction was immediate and fierce. The “thou dost protest too much” saying springs to mind.
James Anaya asserted in his most diplomatic manner that the Northern Territory Emergency Responce (the Intervention) was racist.
Tony Abott responded that James Anaya was an armchair critic that “should get a life and visit some of these communities”.
James Anaya spent 5 hours in Yuendumu during which he spoke with many people and (increasingly unusual for us) asked many pertinent questions (e.g. “How much input does the community have in the design of the school curriculum” and “what percentage of the proceeds from the sale of Aboriginal paintings is paid to the artist”).
Catholic Bishop Eugene Hurley of the Diocese of Darwin happened to be spending a couple of days in the Yuendumu Community when Professor Anaya visited. He said, “I attended a community function with him. My observation was that he listened carefully to the people of the community and seems to have respected faithfully what he saw and heard.
It seems to me that it is not helpful to “shoot the messenger”. Indeed it would be wise to listen both to the message and the messenger.”

Jenny Macklin’s response was “the only Human Rights I am interested in are the rights of children to feel safe” as if destroying the social fabric of remote Aboriginal communities and disempowering parents and grandparents isn’t a form (albeit indirect) of child abuse.
Before dismissing James Anaya it would have been better for our political leaders to read what he actually said. And Ms.Macklin your concerns for children are addressed in Article 21 of the UN Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples, and seeing as Australia has “signed up” to the declaration perhaps you should read the other 45 Articles and begin to implement them.

Racism is alive and well in Australia (much of it not obvious nor concious- much of it in the form of ethnocentricity and xenophobia), but the majority of Australians are repulsed by racism.